Festival for clean living

THE Bendigo Sustainable Living festival is taking place on Saturday, 27 March at the Bendigo Botanic Gardens.

The event, hosted by Bendigo Sustainability Group will feature a number of talks, stalls and demonstrations on how to live cleaner.

Organiser Liz Martin from said the event will highlight the importance of sustainability.

“It’s going to be in the Garden of the Future which is apt because we want to look into the future and make everybody more sustainable,” she said. “It’s going to be quite an exciting day.”

Key guest speaker for the festival is Jerry Coleby-Williams from Gardening Australia who will be giving advice and tips on sustainable gardening.

Celebrity green thumb will also talk about his house Bellis, a 1920s home that was completely redesigned utilising solar energy and waste management strategies.

“It’s a good example of a liveable house that you can make more sustainable,” Ms Martin said.

Also at the event will be Cola Solar – a family-owned solar company servicing houses and business in Central Victoria, Caliban Water – offering water-wise suggestions for homes, and Ortech Industries – who make naturally fire-resistant wall boards entirely from renewable resources such wheat and rice straw.

Festival goers will also be able to purchase a range of sustainable products.

Ms Martin said “hand-made soap, creams and all sorts of things that come in reusable packaging” will be available at different stalls.

She also said members of a new community sustainability group would be there on the day.

“The council of Bendigo is coming along with the waste group to give everybody a talk and tell everybody what can be recycled and what can’t,” she said.

Bendigo Sustainability Group hold two annual events, the second being Sustainable House Day in October, which offers tours of homes that have been designed with energy efficiency and sustainability in mind.

Ms Martin said the group is always looking at how they can help the region live cleaner.

“We’ve put solar panels on social housing in Golden Square, on the Badminton building and the discovery centre and library.

“We’re hoping to do more community projects in Bendigo and get more solar on roofs,” she said.